Everyday life

Well, it's the last day of January already and we've had a fairly uneventful year so far. Anneke, Conrad and I came down with the flu at the beginning of this week but we seem to be over it now and the other two didn't get it (yet).

We've heard from a couple Universities and Conrad has had two phone interviews and will be going to Calgary for a follow-up one at the end of February. We haven't yet heard back from the second interview if he get's a follow up one for it. He's also sent off two more applications. So, we continue to wait (most of the time patiently) to see what God has in store for us. Conrad does have his post-doc for one more year but we are both really looking forward to the time when he has a long(er) term job.

The rest of the month has filled up with regular day to day activities. Here are a few pictures:

The other day I was making apple cake and the kids were all eating the peels. The cake is a recipe from my Mom and I remember eating all the peels while she made it then!

Lukas. What a wonderful kid! He has a very different character than the girls. He will often be on the sidelines watching, not saying much but can also get very angry when Anneke doesn't let him talk. He's very spontaneous with his expressions and movements and often makes us laugh. Yes, he doesn't listen very well and cries and gets angry quickly too but we keep working on that. He also has a tremendous amount of concentration, at times, for a three and a half year old. Here he is, colouring. He spent most of a day going back to this picture, colouring very hard and making sure no white spots (as the kids call it) were showing. If you look at the pictures you can see him switching hands because his hands would get sore from pushing so hard.

Tonight we have the Pot girls here for a sleepover. They assumed they would be sleeping together with Anneke and Lukas so we went for it and thought we'd try it. It's 9:00 now and I still hear them. We'll see if it works...

Quilting

I did make a couple more bags from the same pattern as mine. I made them a little smaller and on the one I made a "Friendship Star" block for the pocket and the other I added the stripe a couple inches from the top.
This one was for my Oma...

This one I made for my Mother-in-law


I also finished my table runner! This project is the one that my sister and I surprised eachother with when we went to BC. We both had two of the same fabrics but made whatever we wanted. I hand quilted this one and really like the way it turned out.


And now I've started on a project I've been planning to do for a long time. A quilt for Anneke. I've been collecting purple fabrics for a few years and after finally getting all the 2" squares cut I'm starting to piece it together. I am making a pattern called "Road to St. Louis". So far I have all 768 squares into 4 patches. It's coming along much quicker than I had thought. Here are Anneke and Lukas watching and saying, "This is my favorite fabric of all of them!" But then when the next ones come through another one becomes the favorite.

A whole chain of purple...


Today I spent the day doing a machine quilting coarse. It was really nice and I learned a lot. We made this square doing some straight stitching and the rest free motion. I found the hardest trying to follow the feather pattern in the middle. I think machine quilting just needs lots of doing and the better you get. It's pretty hard to see on the pictures but maybe you can get an idea.

Happy Birthday's to my In-laws!

Sunday was Conrad's Dad's 59th Birthday...


and Monday was his Mom's big 6-0!

What a blessing from our Heavenly Father to reach such milestones in your lives. Our prayer is that you both continue to grow in faith and live to glorify His name even with the struggles of daily life!

I have a few pictures of some finished quilting projects but our computer is extremely slow lately when it comes to down and up-loading them. So that'll be for another day.

2008

Wishing all a blessed New Year! It is our prayer that we all may grow in faith and glorify God in our daily tasks this coming year.

We had a very nice holiday. Conrad was home mostly which was really nice. On Christmas day we had a worship service in the morning followed by a singsong with the choir (of which I'm part of) performing a few pieces, a few solos and some congregational singing. The rest of the day we spent with friends and had a very nice, relaxing Christmas day. On Boxing Day we had a potluck with my relatives in Ontario. The rest of the week was spent playing games, quilting :), reading etc.

Now it's back to normal, well mostly. The kids were all sick with fevers and colds for a few days but seem to be on the mend today.